The disclosure relates generally to recreational vehicles (“RVs”) having slide-out rooms and, more particularly, to seal arrangements for interfaces between such vehicles and slide-out rooms.
RVs often include slide-out rooms that afford additional living space within the RV when the slide-out rooms are deployed. A typical slide-out room has the form of a box having a floor, a roof, an end or outside wall, two side walls, and an open front that allows access to and from the slide-out room from the interior of the RV.
A slide-out room typically is installed in an opening in a stationary side wall of an RV so that it can extend and retract generally perpendicularly through the opening. When the slide-out room is retracted, the floor of the slide-out room typically is positioned slightly above the floor of the RV. The opening in the wall of the RV is larger than the corresponding dimensions of the slide-out room so that the slide-out room can be extended and retracted without contacting or otherwise interfering with the side wall. As such, a gap exists between the RV and the slide-out room. This gap must be sealed when the slide-out room is fully extended or retracted to preclude the elements from entering the living space within the RV. Typically a seal is provided in the interface between an inner surface of a flange extending about the outer wall of the slide-out room and the outer surface of the RV's side wall when the room is retracted. Another seal may be provided in the interface between a flange extending about the open front of the slide-out room and the inner surface of the RV's side wall when the room is extended.
Many slide-out rooms extend and retract though a path that includes substantially no vertical component and substantially no horizontal component perpendicular to the general direction of travel. Because the movement of the slide-room is generally one-dimensional, the interfaces between the foregoing flanges of such slide-rooms and the corresponding surfaces of the RV's sidewall can be sealed using any number of conventional seals, for example, bulb seals, that function well in compression. Such seals could have a portion installed on one of the RV's sidewall and on the foregoing flanges of the slide-out room and a portion that engages with the other of the sidewall and flanges when in use. A drawback to this form of slide-out room is that the floor of the slide-room remains above the floor of the RV when the room is extended.
Some slide-out rooms have floors that are flush with the floor of the RV when the room is extended. Some mechanisms that provide for this feature include a ramp structure that allows the slide-out room to be gradually lowered as it is extended and gradually raised as it is retracted. As such, the vertical component of path through which the slide-room travels as it is extended and retracted is relatively small when the room approaches the fully extended and fully retracted positions. Because the movement of the slide-room in such embodiments is nearly one-dimensional at the travel limits, conventional seals, such as bulb seal, can be used to seal the foregoing interfaces.
Other slide-out rooms extend and retract though a path that is substantially horizontal until the room nears its travel limit when the room is extended. The room may then drop or move substantially vertically into its final deployed position. Conventional bulb seals are not well-suited for use with such slide-out rooms because the foregoing vertical movement of the slide-out room is likely to place a substantial shear load on the seal, and conventional bulb seals do not readily tolerate such shear loads. Indeed, such shear loads could damage the seal and/or dislodge it from its attachment points to the RV or slide out room.
The present disclosure illustrates and describes a seal assembly for use with such slide-out rooms. The seal assembly may be usable with other slide-out rooms, as well.